Weekends

The last two weekend I've been away on "holiday". Though it will take ages to write about both so ill write about the first now.

The first one 16-18th of November was in Bradford at a Men's Christian Conference called XCEL which is run by Abundant Life Church. We (a group of 6) left on the Friday afternoon for Bradford with me as navigator. Getting to the city was simple but using printed out instructions through the centre was rather difficult. We also had an injury about 100m from the church: our driver kind of missed the turning so didn't slow down, swung the bus around a corner causing one of the guys in the bus (who didn't have a seat belt on) to fly across the bus and smash into the wall. Thankfully, death free, we finally got to the Church just in time to hear Rick Godwin (an American preacher from Texas) give a talk about taking risks (among other things) which i found very challenging.

On the Saturday morning the Pastor of the Church a guy called Paul Scanlon spoke about "I Am Not My Father", something which was obviously very close to his heart. Then we had a short break and one of the younger preachers from the church spoke about Giant Killing using King David's Warriors as an example (1 Chronicles 11), very inspiring.

The there was the afternoon where Scotland lost to Italy in an awful refereeing performance. We bought some beer and watched the game in our hotel room then hurried (in an awfully down hearted mood) to the last session. Again Rick Godwin spoke and again it was very challenging but I'll need to listen to the Cd's to find out exactly what he said in that sermon (not because I've forgotten...).

Sunday we went to the 11:30 service and Delirious led the worship which was kool. Rick Godwin spoke again, this time on Acts 15 and the need for churches/followers of Christ to strip back everything other than the truth. He pointed out a lot of things about church which hold people back from Christ which are man made. Then we headed home.

All in all it was a superb weekend. Abundant Life is a really big church, 2500+ seater, so I found it very encouraging to be around so many other soldiers of God, it was quite a sound to hear us all singing. It was especially encouraging because sometimes I get isolated and annoyed that I/we don't seem to be getting anywhere in my little corner of the battle so seeing that all over the UK (and the world) men are united together in God was great to see. Also the preaching was very good, the guy Rick Godwin was a real straight talker and wasn't worried about treading on peoples toes (to get the message out), but all three showed their real enthusiasm for God.

This was the second year I've gone to XCEL. The first year I was kind of blown away by the size of the place, the way they did things, the asking for money so openly and also the seemingly "prosperity gospel" message they where preaching. So it was hard to take so much of the good, but condensed, teaching in as it took me a while to sort out what i thought of it all. This year though I was able to learn so much more about what it was to be a "Man of God", a question I've been struggling with for a number of years. It also refocused me on what life is about and got me dreaming again. Thank God

Sorry if I've rambled on or not gone into enough depth to explain what actually happened all in all it was a great time, recommend it.